Plant Protection Department, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

Abstract

The carob moth is one of the most devastating pests of pomegranate and some other products. Various pest control measures have been undertaken in order to control this pest but none of them has been successful so far. In the current study the effects of cereal seed proteinaceous extracts including triticale and three wheat cultivars (MV17, Aflak, and Zare) have been studied on α-amylase and protease activity of salivary glands of this insect.Initial screening showed 38, 44, 28 and 76% inhibitory effect for triticlae, MV-17, Aflak, and Zare cereal seed extracts respectively on α-amylase activity. Further studies were performed with Zare wheat cultivar using various concentrations including 13, 6.5, 3.25, 1.625 and 0.8125 µg protein on the enzyme activity and results showed that they inhibited the enzyme activity by 76, 75, 68, 60, and 42%, respectively. Gel assays confirmed the spectrophotometric data i.e the effect of the seed extract on the enzyme was dose dependant. The same trend was observed when seed extracts were tested against proteinase activity. These data suggest that plants produce different proteins with different specificity toward herbivores digestive enzymes some of which could be used for insect control in IPM program.